Hello, I'm a newbie !

[crazimom]

Hello everyone, I have already learned so much from this website ! Our Pool was built late last fall, and I just opened it for the season. it's already crystal clear after three days. I vacuumed, shocked and started up the chlorine feeder. I also have a polaris 280, that is working about 3 hours a day. I'm turning the pump off a night. Is this too good to be true??? I feel like I'm waiting for something bad to happen..lol. My first question of many...is it better to leave the solar blanket on during the day or off? My water temp. is 64 but it holds steady as long as I leave the cover on at night.

[chemicalbalance]

64 degrees is freezing. Your solar cover heats the pool from the suns rays during the day. If you keep your solar cover on during the day your temperature will rise. Using the cover at night acts like an insulating blanket to keep all the built up heat trapped. I leave the solar cover on everyday that we are not using the pool and I always put it on at night when we are finished swimming for the evening. With a reel it takes about 3 minutes to put in on or take it off.

Your pool will tend to be clear when the water is cold. Nothing grows that well. We keep our pool in the high 80's during the summer. This is a great opportunity for algae if you dont keep up with it. You must pay attention to your chlorine levels and brush the walls once per week.

I am a big believer in changing my DE filter regularly. A whole seasons worth of DE costs $15 at Lowe's so I change my DE the first of every month. I like my pool to sparkle which is a function of chemical balance and good filtration. Plus my vacuum attachment works much better with high suction.

I have a Polaris 180. DO NOT RELY ON THIS TO BE YOUR SOLE SOURCE OF POOL VACUUMING. It is good to keep the bottom "looking nice" when you dont have time to vacuum. It just stirs up the bottom of the pool and filters it through a mesh bag. I run the Polaris when I want to stir up the bottom or mix chemicals. I bought the professional vacuum foot Ben sells on the PoolSolutions.com site and IT WORKS AWESOME. I vacuum the pool (24,000 gal, IG 18x40) every Saturday morning. It only takes 15 minutes with his vacuum head. The cheap plastic vacuum brush that came with the pool was junk and didnt suck up anything.

You said that you are turning the pump off at night. Our pump is on a timer and it runs from 10 am to midnight each day. The kids dont get in the pool until 11 am or so, so the pump is running before they get in. Usually, they are done swimming by 9pm so the pool gets filtered another 3 hours before shutting down. If we have a pool party or lots of kids over, I shock the pool before closing it for the night and run the pump till around 3 am.


You mentioned that you are using a Chlorine feeder so I assume that you are using TriChlor pucks. TriChlor is very low pH product, so the more you use it, the more your pH will try to drop. It will not affect your alkalinity, and if you use off the shelf pH increaser, you will increase your alkalinity. You can end up in a position where your alkalinity is too high to budge your pH and your pH keeps dropping from the TriChlor. I have a chlorine feeder also but I stopped using it and now just add some bleach every couple days.

Add chorine products in the evening. Sunlight degrades their effects and works against them. You are better off entering darkness with full strength chlorine, it will work much better.

Sounds like you are off to a good start. Just monitor your numbers and write down your readings from your test kit each week so you can see any fluctuations. After you get the hang of this, you will be able to tell the first sign of trouble just by a change in the water clarity or feel.